INFORMATION FOR EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS WISHING TO WORK IN NEW ZEALAND

The North and South Islands of New Zealand are located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Australia. More information about living and working in New Zealand can be found at: www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/living-in-nz

New Zealand also enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world, recently ranked as the 7th best country to live in the world after Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Netherland, USA and Germany by the 2014 UN Human Development Index (HDI).

Auckland, New Zealand largest city, was voted one of the highest quality of living cities worldwide, recently ranked 3rd in the Mercer’s 2012 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey.

Working in New Zealand

In New Zealand, more than 72% of the working-age population aged 15 to 64 has a paid job. This figure is higher than the OECD employment average of 65%. New Zealand’s ranks worldwide 10th highest out of 36 OECD countries for the percentage of people currently in a paid job in 2012. Whereas unemployment was 6.9%of the working-age population as at Dec 2012.

New Zealanders work 1,739 hours a year, slightly less than the OECD average of 1,765 hours. The share of employees working more than 50 hours per week is not very large across OECD countries. However, in New Zealand, some 13% of employees work very long hours, higher than the OECD average of 9%.

Employment in the areas of agriculture and forestry is high, due to high demand for dairy products overseas resulting in high prices. The agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry had 70,570 enterprises and 108,200 employees at February 2012. Immigration New Zealand has identified a list of skills in demand. Science jobs on the lists include;

The median weekly income in New Zealand in June 2013 was NZ$575. However, salaries do vary from sector to sector, and in 2013, the highest income earners in New Zealand were in the fields of Medicine and ICT.

The Mercer’s 2014 Cost of Living Survey ranks New Zealand major cities such as Auckland (58) and Wellington (79) in comparison to Hong Kong (3) as one of the most expensive city to live. European cities ranked Zurich (5), Paris (27) and Vienna (32). The Survey released annually, measures the comparative cost of living for expatriates in 211 major cities. Mercer’s compare the cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, New York City is the base city and the US dollar as the base currency.

The FRIENZ project has received funding from the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/ 2007-2013] under grant agreement No 312168; and from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).